December 12, 2014 at 2:14 am #2243

Participant

Thank you again.
My partner and I intend to marry. Given our ages and my vasectomy, children are not in our future. Neither of us consider using a condom long-term in marriage viable. I’ll readily take the daily suppressive dose of Valtrex to reduce the risks of transmission. Is transmission in a long term sexually active relationship inevitable, or might it never occur if suppressive dose is taken and there is no sexual contact during an outbreak? (I saw in one of your responses that you have been in a long term relationship with an HSV2 positive partner absent condom use and you continue to test negative.) Would condom use be effective for us given the location of my first outbreak?

In reading some of the other posts, my impression is that, given a choice between the two, oral HSV2 is much less onerous than genital HSV2. Would it make any sense in my situation for my partner to intentionally seek to contract oral HSV2, or is it more prudent to simply wait and see if transmission genitally occurs? Oral sex (giving and receiving) is a big part of our relationship. I want what is best for my partner, while neither of us want the “spectre” of possible transmission to interfere with our sexual relationship.